By way of introduction, Dr. Berliner, a general practitioner, practitioner of manipulative medicine, first of all confirmed patients’ rights to the best medicine which is, in his opinion, medicine prescribed by qualified doctors. He then gave his position as regards unscientific medicines, and stated the conditions which could turn so called “soft”into “hard” medicines.

He then developed his speech around the presentation of two cases of patients who became victims of such pernicious deviations.

The first case was that of a little girl with Down’s Syndrome who had a malformation of the heart and leukaemia. Her mother, who came under the control of a healer and a homeopathic doctor, refused the necessary treatment as a result of their influence. Deprived of any cardiac treatment, and of any medical care worthy of the name, and also deprived of any chemotherapy, the child died. The speaker detailed the neo-mystical interpretations the healer made on the subject of the patient, her pathologies and of her death. He also described the philosophical/medical context of this case: aggression displayed towards traditional medicine, depreciation of the symptoms in favour of supposed causes of the illnesses, minimizing devaluation of the death through references to reincarnation. He then explained the mother’s reasons for opposing conventional medicine, and listed the medical shortcomings of the homeopathic doctor and the healer, about whom the speaker also gave details. Dr. Berliner closed this section by evoking the various issues raised by this situation: particularly the reasons for exposing homeopathy and blunders such as this. He also spoke about the role of the press, its proven importance and also its occasional limits.

The second case was that of a 39 year-old woman with highly malignant breast cancer. She refused removal and the necessary treatment. Her refusal was backed by Dr. X, who follows the HAMER theories, which state that cancer is exclusively psychological in origin and does not, therefore, respond to medical treatment. What is more, Dr. X looked for reasons for the woman’s cancer in her personal and family history – reasons which for some people would be karma. Following two complaints being filed – one by the patient’s husband and the other by her gynaecologist, the Council of the Order of Doctors interviewed Doctor X several times and got the patient to consult a psychiatrist. Thanks to this, she released herself from Doctor X’s influence and accepted the appropriate treatment for her condition. After having stressed the effectiveness of the intervention made by the Council of the Order of Doctors, the speaker detailed the opinions held by Doctor X – particularly his denial of the existence of the AIDS virus. He also recalled the links between the theories of Dr. HAMER and those of Dr. SABBAH. To finish his presentation, he quoted certain advocates of anti-vaccination and the relationship between one of them and a member of the Health Commission for the European Parliament.

Dr. Berliner concluded by calling us to pursue actions to neutralise these deviations in health matters – the Achilles heel, he says, of sects and cults.

Debate: Some of the questions following this presentation led Dr. GRUNWALD, Member of the Council for the Order of French Doctors to state the vaccine policy and the conditions for authorisation for selling medicine in his country.